Thecover.cn:
Since China first began its fight against poverty, the country has lifted more than 90 million people out of this condition. In this massive poverty alleviation campaign, how will you consolidate progress and effectively prevent people from slipping back into impoverishment? Thank you.
Liu Yongfu:
Currently, only a few million people are living under the poverty line in China. However, it is important to maintain poverty alleviation efforts to ensure that the population of over 93 million people who have left this situation does not slip back into poverty. For years, we have been committed to the task. As a result, the number of people who have returned to impoverished conditions fell year by year, down from over 600,000 in 2016 to 200,000 in 2017, tens of thousands in 2018, then further dropped to the most current figure in 2019 of only several thousands. Although the quality of poverty reduction work has improved, we should strive to surpass our original goals and concentrate our efforts in three areas:
First, we should continue to pursue industrial development. Developing industries take steadfast dedication and strong effort.
Second, we should ensure that migrant workers can work in cities to increase their income. This will produce the fastest results to relieve impoverished farmers. So we should support them in every way to work in cities and have a steady income.
Third, we should provide further support for those relocated from inhospitable areas. Nearly 10 million registered impoverished, and 5 million non-impoverished people were relocated from poverty-stricken areas. We should concentrate our efforts on supporting them to develop industries and find jobs.
What's more, a guideline on establishing supervision and support mechanisms for people to stay out of poverty has been formulated and will be published very soon. People with a risk of falling back into impoverishment should be identified, and people living on the poverty line should also be identified. We should identify them in advance and offer them the necessary help and support before they sink or slip back into poverty. Thank you.
